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The trip to Eira seemed shorter than it had the first two times I’d travelled it.  I managed to make it to the border by dark, and I set up camp for the night.  I hadn’t made it to Eira tonight, but I’d definitely be there before the day was even started tomorrow.

The next morning when I awoke, the first thing I did was pull out the map.  It was early morning, so I had to use my torch to see the map, but the remaining two dots were where they had been for the past three days.  The one in Eira hadn’t moved, nor had the one at the border, though I wasn’t concerned about that one.

I stuffed the map back into my bag and crossed the border after putting on my boots.  I had quite the walk ahead of me in the dark this morning.

☀☀☀☀☀

I was skipping by the time I reached Eira.  I was so happy to be back here.  It felt like my home now, despite the fact that I’d only spent a few days here.  I went to pull open the northwest gate, but it wouldn’t budge.  I tugged at it again.  Nothing.  I frowned.  Was something wrong?  I tried the southwest gate next.  This one wouldn’t move either.  Neither would the other three.  Finally, I tried knocking on the east gate.  That didn’t work too well.  Snow didn’t vibrate sound the same way wood did.

As a last resort, I decided to climb the walls of the city.  Strangely, they were fairly easy to climb.  Not good security, in my opinion, but it didn’t mind that at the moment.  The entire town was gathered in front of Tae’s inn.

I nearly fell off the wall in an effort to get down and find out what on earth was going on.  I shoved myself to the front of the massive crowd.  I hadn’t even known this many people lived in Eira.

Tae and Lumi were standing at the inn’s entrance, both looking very concerned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked in alarm.

Tae glanced down at me. “We have some bad news and some good news.”

“What?”

“Icy is missing.”

And…I still didn’t know who Icy was.

“Who?” I asked, voicing this confusion.

“Our pet arctic fox.  Or…I suppose she’s human?  Anyways, she’s the last mystic.  This would be great if she hadn’t disappeared immediately after telling us.”

I stared up at him, trying to process all this new information.  After calculating all of it in my head, I asked, “Do you know what happened to her?”

“We have an idea,” Lumi nodded. “Jungkook is also missing.  I have a feeling that her disappearance has something to do with him.”

I ground my teeth.  I knew something was off about him!

“How long ago did she go missing?”

“In the past hour, I think,” Tae shrugged. “It took us a little while to notice.  She often wanders around wherever she wants, so her being gone wasn’t really a concern at first.”

I sighed. “So, where do we start?”

Tae and Lumi shared a glance.

“We’re not sure,” Lumi admitted.

“You’ve got to have some sort of idea.  Did anyone see her leave?  What about Jungkook?”

“I saw Jungkook leave town,” a voice in the crowd admitted.  I turned around to find Hobi raising his hand.

“You did?  When?  Which way did he go?”

“He went out the southwest gate.  About half an hour ago I suppose?”

“Well, why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Lumi asked in exasperation.

☀☀☀☀☀

The town spilt up into groups to search the whole of Alba.  Though we had a starting point for where Jungkook had gone, we had to clue which way he’d actually gone.  He could’ve used that gate just as a diversion for where he was really headed.  The question was…where did he have to go, really?  I’d seen all the biggest cities in Alba, and they were quite small.  There was nowhere really he could hide very easily.  Except the mountains, maybe.  The thought of him hiding in the mountains concerned me.  We’d gotten this close to breaking the curse; what would happen if we couldn’t find Icy?

Tae demanded I pull out the map.  I didn’t really see the point in this considering we knew our way mostly around the country, but I did it anyway.  Maybe he knew something I didn’t.  He unraveled it nearly the second I handed it to him.

“Hey, Odelle?  Did you ever figure out what that dot belonged to?”

I shook my head. “I thought it belonged to the map because it followed me through all of Alba, but it stopped in Eira when I went back to Chanda.”

He held the map in front of me. “I think I may know what it belongs to.”

My eyes widened. It was over one of the northern peaks of the Viola mountain range.

“Can we zoom in there?”

“Well, we don’t have a table, so you’re going to have to help me spin it.”

He held the map between his fingertips, and I spun it.  The map was now focused on the north Viola mountains, and the dot was moving southwest across the map.

“That’s gotta be Icy,” Lumi gasped. “I can’t believe this.  We have a lead!”

As we ran across the flatlands, I wished there was a faster way for us to travel.  Even though we were pretty sure we knew where he was, there was no way of telling if we’d be able to catch up with him.  He’d gotten quite the head start on us, and if he was headed down south, he was likely going to Alpin.  And as everyone knew, Alpin wasn’t the kind of place that was easy to search.

We reached the mountains when the sun was high in the sky.  We had to climb up, as going around the mountain would add hours to our trip.  How had Jungkook even climbed the mountain carrying someone else?

“You go first, Odelle.  Take the map.  If you lose us, keep going,” Tae told me as he stared up the steep mountain.

I didn’t have time to discuss this with him, so I started on my way up.  It was easier to move than I’d expected.  As I climbed, I realized that maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to chase Jungkook to Alpin.  We could do it!  We could save Icy!

I reached the top in the blink of an eye, and I turned around to look for everyone else.  They were far below me.

“Go, Odelle!  Go!” Lumi cried.

So, I turned, and I ran down the mountain.  I pulled out my map.  I was getting closer to the dot than I had been before, and especially closer as I tripped down the mountain at a speed I didn’t know I could move.  Before I knew it, I was sprinting across the flatlands toward Alpin.  I could see it ahead of me with the thick clouds hanging in the sky and the way the air seemed to fog over.  The dot had entered Alpin a few minutes ago.  I knew I couldn’t possibly make it there that soon, but I was definitely closing the gap between us at the speed I was moving.

When I got to Alpin, the campsite near the border was nearly empty.  Except for two people.  An elderly lady and….

“Nevada!  You’re here!” I exclaimed as I ran up to the campsite.  I was nearly out of breath now, and I slipped into the snow as soon as I was near enough to converse with him. “I’m looking for a man.  He’s got tan skin, and he’s about as tall as you.  Looks pretty young…”

“I think I saw someone come through here.  He had a large bag with him, and he ran by pretty fast.  He had to have been pretty tan.  You can’t usually see pale Albians through all the snow here.”

I sighed, panting for air.  I dug the map out of my bag and pulled it open over my head.  The dot had already reached the center of Alpin now, but it had stopped moving.  I watched it for a few moments, waiting for it to move, but it never did.  I pushed myself up into a sitting position and stared down at the map.

“Something is wrong.”